Cutting the Purse Strings

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch. Hamas will whine that we're not respecting the decision made by their electorate to put a bunch of terrorists in charge of Gaza and portions of the West Bank, but the decision by the EU to cut payments is a testament to European democracy, which decided that providing money to a terrorist organization, even one that runs a country, is against the Europeans' interests.

"We are not authorizing any payments that go to the Palestinian Authority or through the Palestinian Authority," said a spokeswoman for the E.U.'s executive branch, Emma Udwin, adding that further funding of the Palestinians would be discussed by foreign ministers of the 25-nation bloc when they meet in Luxembourg on Monday. "This doesn't prejudge any decisions they might make," she said.

The European Union has been the Palestinian Authority's largest donor since the government was created under the 1993 Oslo peace accords. Since Hamas won Palestinian elections earlier this year, it has been warning that the Palestinian Authority would lose that aid unless the Hamas-led government renounced violence, recognized Israel and accepted past peace agreements.

Hamas advocates the violent destruction of the Jewish state, but that came into question — briefly — after the Palestinian foreign minister, Mahmoud Zahar, discussed the issue in general in an interview with The Times of London published today.

"Let us speak about what is the meaning of the two-state solution," Mr. Zahar said. "We will ask them what is their concept concerning the two-state solution."

Later today, the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya, insisted that Hamas had not changed its position. "That is not correct. Where did you hear that?" he said in the town of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, Reuters reported.

UPDATE:
The US has also cut its aid to the Palestinians. About time.